Service planned for mother of Newtown school shooter

KINGSTON - A memorial service is being planned for June 1 at the First Congregational Church in Kingston to remember the mother of Connecticut school shooter Adam Lanza.

Family and friends have been invited to the 1 p.m. service for Nancy (Champion) Lanza, the 52-year-old mother who had lived in Kingston for many years before moving to Connecticut.

Lanza was shot and killed by her son, Adam, 20, at her home on Dec. 14, 2012, before he went on a deadly shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where he gunned down 20 young children and six adults inside the school before killing himself.

The massacre in Newtown was the country's second-deadliest mass shooting.

Lanza's family was deeply rooted in Kingston - the town where she grew up and was a 1978 graduate of Sanborn Regional High School.

Lanza, who also attended the University of New Hampshire, worked at John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Boston until 1992 - the year Adam was born.

Lanza left Kingston in 1998 and moved to Newtown with her family, which included Adam, who was then 6, and his older brother, Ryan. She later divorced from her husband, Peter.

Lanza had two brothers, James and Donald Champion, and a sister, Carol Gould. James Champion is a retired Kingston police captain who now works part time for the department.

A private service attended by Lanza's family was held Dec. 20 at an undisclosed location.

At the time, her family indicated that a public service would be planned for the spring.